Mark your calendars: Every April, there’s a day set aside to celebrate being a neighbor
You may have noticed that there’s a holiday for everything. This month alone, folks have celebrated National Teddy Bear Day, Video Game Day, and – grab a napkin – National Hoagie Day. Those are all fun and good for people’s personal interests, but what about something more…. communal? Well, here’s a holiday that we can take part in together: Neighborday.
The holiday was created in 2010 by GOOD magazine and is celebrated on the last Saturday in April. Neighborday is described as a “global celebration of the people with whom we share space.” In announcing the holiday, the magazine declared: “It’s about potlucks and having face-to-face interactions with the people around you. It’s about taking care of your streets and supporting your local shops. It’s about getting to know the people around you that you may not notice every other day of the year.” Over the past four years, community minded individuals all over the U.S. have responded to the idea in their own neighborhoods with street barbecues, river cleanups, free icecream giveaways, bike rides, and other ways of mixing with their neighbors. The goal is a laudable one – strengthening the social bonds in our neighborhoods – so mark your calendars and begin thinking of ways to reach out to your neighbors on Neighborday and the other 364 days of the year.
